In the daily care of critically ill patients, a great diversity of medical equipment, including infusion management equipment and supplies, pressure transducers, physiological monitors, and other equipment is employed. Such equipment is typically set up at the patient's bedside where the equipment is supported by various stands, racks or hangers. For example, the equipment may be supported by five-star floor stands, it may be attached to headwalls, or it may be suspended from booms that are affixed to the ceiling, floor, wall, column, or wall-mounted columns. The equipment may also be supported or on other stationary or mobile platforms or structures.
All of the equipment needed and supported around hospital rooms also sometimes requires a variety of items such as the following: accessories, tubing, spare parts, replacement sterile components, and patient charts. These components also require a storage location in the room near the equipment together with which these items are being used. Such storage has traditionally been a wire mesh basket that is hung on a wall or by a patient bedside.
The problem with the currently known storage baskets are as follows. The wire mesh from which the baskets are made is difficult to clean. There are too many openings and intersecting corners in these basket designs. As a result, even if the basket is disinfected with a cloth, each wire junction accumulates debris and such. The openings also let smaller items fall through.
Further, the construction of the baskets and their supports are all welded wire, making the structural stability of the baskets relatively low. The baskets are level when newly installed, but as they age, they get bent a little (as they always seem to do) and they look out of whack as they droop. The divider partitions within the baskets are also flimsy. Further, because the individual adapters near each end are attached to a flimsy structure, they are very difficult to handle or attach and remove from the structures to which they are attached because one tends to torque the basket during handling, which can cause the adapters to become misaligned.
Finally, shorter employees cannot see into the baskets if they are high and the contents are difficult to reach. While if a nurse wants to empty out as particular compartment, she or he has to dig into the basked and individually remove the items. There is a need for a sturdy and stable storage system that allows improved access and accessibility to maintain a clean and organized patient care environment.